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Great, cheap iron. Perfect for students, good for families.

For the £6 that this iron cost me, it has fulfilled all its requirements and more. I've had the iron for a little over 3 years and it shows no sign of giving in, touch wood. Mind you, as a typical 'young man' I hate ironing and really do use it as infrequently as possible. In a family of 4 or 5, the iron might not last as long as you'd be ironing considerably more than 5/6 shirts a week and possibly a couple of pairs of trousers.

The iron itself is aesthetically and ergonomically pleasing. It is a good weight, the handle grip is comfortable and the buttons/dials are all easily operable. (There are 2 buttons, one steam and one water spray, the steam button is very effective). The length of the cable is also sufficiently long - one of my real bug bears. When you switch it on it heats up quickly and the temperature can be controlled easily with the dial.

The iron deals with most clothes fairly easily, gliding over them and removing the creases but I do notice that when I iron clothes with rigid creases in that it can take a lot of steaming to get the creases out. However, I'm yet to find any item of clothing that can resist the iron in the end - it may just take slightly longer than with an expensive iron. Also, the iron occasionally leaks little droplets of water out of the water hole. This isn't the end of the world but would probably annoy some people.

Overall, a great iron for the price and I'd recommend it to anyone. I imagine you'd have to pay a lot of money to remove the small issues with this iron and, for me, it wouldn't be worth it.

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Ok for occassional use but wouldnt recommend for regular use.

I very rarely iron clothes, my partner works from home so doesn't wear shirts and I hang clothes straight from the wash so hardly any creases to worry about, I'm probably a little lazy too! But a few months ago we we're guests at my sister in laws wedding and come the day before i realised we no longer had an iron (previous one gave up, maybe boredom from seldom use!) so sent my partner out to sainsburys for one, he returned half an hour later with the Basics iron, I was a little worried about it doing the job as he said it cost him a little under £4, I'm a big bargain fan but didn't want to look a mess at a wedding!!

The iron came in a white and orange basics box so not much packaging to deal with, the iron itself is white plastic with a metal plate, it is 1.3kg so not very heavy. It has two buttons, one for squirting water and one for steam plus the usual dial for adjusting the temperature depending on the fabric you are ironing. It came with a little jug for pouring the water into the iron which holds 160ml. The cord is 1.8m and is just the right length for me but if you have to sit your ironing board away from a socket you may struggle to use this iron along the full length of your board.

Upon switching the iron on a little red light will come on, turn the dial to required setting and wait for the little to go off again, this is when it is at its top heat for that setting. The iron did glide very well over our wedding outfits although it was a bit of a pain for heavy creases, probably due to the iron being such light weight but a bit of persistent steaming and they went after a short while, it probably took me twice as long to iron things as it would have with my previous iron ( Morphy Richards if I remember rightly) it also likes to "leak" a lot of water onto the clothes but for less than £4 you can't really complain!

All in all, taking into account I have ironed once in the past year (bad wife!! lol) this iron did its job for me, took a little longer than expected but we got there, if you iron regularly I would suggest buying a better iron than this one as it will save you a lot of time in the long wrong despite costing more money to begin with.

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Hugely impressed

Over the years we have been married, we have owned a fair few irons, a lot of which have lasted a long time and others which broke soon after we had bought them. When our last iron bit the dust we decided to just opt for a cheap basic iron and found Sainsbury's BASIC Iron at the daft proce of £3.89.

The only thing about this iron is that it does not have a boatload of fancy features to it, but then for this price you would not expect it be anyhting else but extremely basic. The tank has a holding capacity of 160ml of water and the iron wattage is 1200. We've had hotter wattage irons but this is quite good for what it is. This iron comes with its own cup for pouring in the water and the base is stong durable stainless steel which is also scratch resistant. It weighs in at 28kg so that's fine by me,but my other half feels it is a bit on the light side for her. It feels like the smallest iron I have ever used but I soon got used to it after a while. (Yes, I am a man who does the ironing, ladies).

It actually also irons really very well indeed for such a cheap product. It irons work shirts and trousers and jeans ext perfectly and also as it is so light it doesn't make my arm ache if I stand there for ages at the ironing board. The cable is a also a good length and there is no need to have to use an extention cable at all. All the creases seem to come straight out of everything I iron without a massive amount of effort on my part.

There is no way at all I can possibly fault this iron and you must surely agree that at this price it is a real bargain.

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A very average iron from the basics range at Sainsburys.

=== The product ===

This is a small basic iron.

=== The packaging ===

This iron comes packaged in a white & orange cardboard box. The packaging is very simple with a little blurb and not many gimmicks really. The packaging stands out on the shelf as being a cheap iron and this is the only reason I purchased this. It was cheap, I knew it was before I even looked at the price but I also knew, from the packaging, that this was nothing special and would probably just about do the job.

=== How to use this ===

Well you simple need to plug this in, rest it standing upwards so it doesn't burn anything and then glide it along your clothes.

=== Specification Information ===

The wattage of this iron is 1200W and the flex length is 1.7m. This was more than ample for me to use in any of the 6 double plug sockets in my kitchen or living room. The flex was long enough not to have to stand at an awkward angle so I could comfortably watch TV while using this. The iron itself is white & blue, there is really nothing fancy about the packaging at all. The width is 28.3cm and the iron apparently 28kg according to the website but I believe it should read 2.8kg as this is definitely not very heavy! No more than one of my dumbbells that I use when working out anyway.

The iron is made of plastic and there is protection around the flex ensuring that this bends well and does not fray or get damaged and even with using this for around 10 months pulling it back and forth across the edge of my ironing board it did not get damaged at all. The handle is comfort for my medium sized hands and my husband never complained about how small the iron was when using it. There are two buttons for shooting out water and steam and the steam output is 10g per minute. This is not a lot but is ample for helping to steam through very tough creases. As I tend to hang most things straight from the washing machine I don't really have a problem with lots of stubborn creases so never used the steam feature much.

The length of the iron is 60cm which is not particularly long but was ample for ironing my husband's work shirts which was the main reason for purchasing this iron really. The soleplate is made from stainless steel and does glide well along clothing only seeming to snag when caught on cotton logos on my husband's shirts. The tank holds 160ml of water and there was a handy little plastic container provided with this that made it easier to pour water in to the spout. As with most irons the temperature can be controlled depending on the kind of item you are ironing whether it's cotton, linen or something else, providing it can be ironed there should be a setting for it. The dial was simple enough to turn and there was a little indicator light that ensured I knew when the temperature was correct again ready for ironing the next garment.

=== Where can I buy this & for how much? ===

This can be purchased from Sainsburys stores and www.sainsburys.co.uk and the current price (September 2011) is £3.84 which I believe is the exact same price I paid in September 2010 when I purchased mine. The price is a bargain, it is ideal if you are just starting out or want an iron to use on rare occasions and don't want to shell out for. However, in this case I do feel that I got what I paid for, not a lot!

=== Overall opinion ===

I would say that this iron is average. For the first few months I would use it with no problems at all, remembering to empty the water out of it after use to ensure that there wasn't a huge build up of limescale inside. I did use tap water, as I always have with irons, and after around six months I found that this begun to let me down quite a lot. As I began to use it more and more frequently, almost nightly, for a number of weeks, I found that it begun to leak a lot of water. On more than one occasion it was standing up in between use and I would find that the water would leak out and eventually this made an unsightly stain on my ironing board. This was obviously a downside and would mean that I would iron a shirt and then it would end up with drips on it and I would have to go over it again and again to ensure that the wet patch was removed. I believe that whenever the iron was jolted it would leak a little more water and so I would have to creep along very slowly with the iron just to ensure that the garment I was ironing did not end up saturated.

The main reason that I decided to replace this iron with a better quality one was because I have a lot more items to iron now and wanted something that would make the job a little simpler & faster. This iron gradually begun to leak water more and more frequently and when I wanted to use the steam function I would find this to be a let down also as it would either work sporadically or not at all and that was the final nail in the coffin of this iron which promptly got listed on freecycle (with all it's faults well advertised) and it went off to a new home of someone who needed one while waiting for a replacement from the manufacturer of their current one.

I would recommend this iron if you are looking for something for occasional use or just to tide you over until you can afford a better one but my main suggestion would be not to rely on this for a long period of time. This is a real takeaway style iron, good at first but regretted afterwards and for just £21 I was able to purchase an iron a couple of months ago that is working fantastically and has literally cut my ironing time in half. I would not buy one of these again unless I was caught short and this was the only thing that was available, however, that said, it did work well for a few months and was ample for my needs until my husband got a promotion at work and wore more shirts, many more!

Please note that one or two of the 'quick rating' bars are not applicable so I have gone in the middle with them (3/5).

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You get what you pay for

I was given the Sainsbury's Basics iron by my boyfriend's mum when I was heading off on a trip to a cottage in the Lake District earlier this year. I knew that there was no iron at the accommodation, and I didn't want to take an expensive iron that may become damaged in the trip up there. My ironing needs are only very modest, and so I didn't require a machine that was particularly professional.

Aesthetically the iron is not particularly groundbreaking. It is vaguely streamlined in appearance, and is comprised of a number of panels in various complementary shades, and the controls are easy to access at the head of the device. One strange thing I noticed about the iron was that the cord is positioned in such a manner it makes manoeuvring the device troublesome at times. The cord is also stiff, and this means should you need to change the position of the iron - easier than repositioning the garment on the ironing board sometimes - you do sometimes have to give it a yank and risk moving the ironing plate perilously close to your skin. Another gripe I have with the iron is filling it with water. I'm not sure how much consideration the designers gave to the shapes of taps people may have in their homes, but the opening in the iron is not at all complementary to any of the taps I have used with the device. The consequence of this is that water tends to spurt from the tap over the outside of the iron, with a less than satisfactory amount entering the machine itself.

The Basics Steam Iron comes with six options depending on the sort of fabric you are working with. This, and indeed most of the options the iron offers, was not something I have ever explored in much detail. I tended to stick with the cotton setting, or switch on to using the delicates option if I had cause to iron anything particularly flimsy. When using the latter setting however, I should caution you that it is perhaps unwise to use even this feature on the likes of silks. I have used the setting on lace-based items, but even then was so scared I would cause damage to them I literally pulled the iron across their surface in one swift movement and left it at that. Luckily this action has never resulted in any real damage to items, although I did notice on one of my earlier experimenting sessions that the outer edge of a lace blazer was left very slightly discoloured from using the iron.

Even had I not seen the box I would have been able to tell this was a value iron. It has a flimsy feel to it that is not especially reassuring, although on the occasions I have used it I have not sustained any injuries, nor has the iron caused any significant damage to my garments. The Basics Iron can be purchased for around £10, but I would rather invest in a machine that is more substantial and is easier to use.

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Budget Iron with a budget feature set

I bought this Iron when i first moved to my new place, i didn't have much money to spend and I just needed something for a few months before i bought something better, and at just under a fiver you can't really complain.

In the few months that I had it, the coating on the bottom had developed some sort of black wood-stain effect. Maybe this is a feature, I don't know, but i don't remember seeing it listed as a feature on the box when i bought it.

Talking of packaging, it was bland and the instructions would have been easier to understand if they were in Chinese, but then again most people don't need instructions to iron a a t-shirt or jeans. They do give you a nice little watering jug to fill the iron with water, which is kind of them. Once you've binned all the above mentioned crap you can begin ironing. The cable is quite long at about 2 meters and the buttons and knobs are easy enough to press / turn. This is labeled as a steam iron, and it does produce steam to some extent, but is more like a squirt gun affixed onto the iron. This is not much use, and once you've used a proper steam iron, you realise that Sainsbury must have some twisted sense of humor passing this off as a steam iron.

Ironing-wise, it does the job, but you do need to go over the clothes quite a few number of times in order to get the creases out, this is quite a mission on jeans. Cotton isn't to bad. The temperature control thingy can be adjusted to the type of garment but i normally just keep it on full, which might be why my iron has the wood-stain effect on the bottom, this does not really affect anything though, as long as your quick.

So, if you need an iron in an emergency, and you don't want to spend too much, buy this. It is a little heavy so you will get a nice workout from it too. On the other hand if you want ironing to be a pleasure instead of a chore, invest a little extra and buy a proper steam iron. It won't be heavy, and it'll iron clothes quicker.

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For the price this iron does everything it should.

When I began university I spent a few weeks trawling through shops finding those essentials that I would need for the years ahead.

I arrived at university to realise that I had forgotten a key item - an iron.

During a normal shopping trip around Sainsbury's this 'Basics Steam Iron' caught my eye. At under £10 I thought that I really couldn't go wrong - Especially considering it wasn't worth spending a lot on a more expensive one as being at university I probably wouldn't be using it too often!!!

The product comes packaged in a very simple blue box (I guess they save on packaging costs this way), a filling jug was also supplied to make filling the iron even easier.

- Usage -

The iron looks pretty similar to any other iron. There is a steam button, water filler hole and a temperature wheel to adjust the temperature depending on the material you are working with.

Simply fill the iron, plug it in, adjust the temperature and iron until your heart is content!

- Problems -

There are no real issues with this iron. The only significant problem I have had is that there seems to be a black patch on the metal plate. I am not sure if this is where the smooth coating on the heat plate has worn/burnt away slightly, nevertheless the iron still works as it should - If this had happened on a more expensive model though I would have complained by now!

- Verdict -

This does exactly what it says on the tin. It may not be of the highest quality but it seems to do my ironing just fine.

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A good cheap iron that does the job.

If you are looking for a cheap iron then I would recommend this iron from Sainsburys.

My regular iron had broken so I asked my boyfriend to pick one up on his way home from work. Like the cheapskate he is, he brought home this Sainsburys iron which cost only £7 although he assured me that he had gone "mid range price" by avoiding purchasing a cheaper iron which was only £5.

As the iron was so cheap I was pretty sceptical it would be any good but I was pleasantly surprised. My boyfriend wears a shirt every day for work so these were the first things I set about to test the might of this £7 iron. I have to say it did the job fine - a quick sweep was all it took to get the shirts nicely pressed. The iron has steam and spray functions which are handy for stubborn wrinkles and ironing in creases. It also has a self clean function which I am yet to use.

The only thing that lets this iron down is what I consider to be a big flaw in the design. As you can see from the picture above the back end is inexplicably very highly cut away from the base. This means that when the iron is upright on the ironing board it is not very stable and falls over at the slightest nudge. This could potentially be very dangerous and it is a shame that a good product has fallen down on the design when the functionality is very good.

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Cheap but not cheerful iron! "Strike while the iron is hot" because it is best suited for high heat!

~*~ "Value Where It Matters" ~ The Company ~*~

The actual parent company of Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd is J. Sainsbury plc; one of the leading contenders being the second largest chain of the supermarkets in the UK. The company also has interests in banking and property.

Sainsbury's began its roots way back in 1869 by a married couple named John James and Mary Ann Sainsbury, whilst living in London. Their firm grew fast, by 1922 becoming the largest grocery retailer and in fact, pioneered the self-service retailing market in the UK. When John Sainsbury died in 1928, they had accumulated 128 shops. His last words apparently were 'Keep the shops well lit'.

Again, as an innovative company, Sainsbury's was also a pioneer of own-brand goods.There have been numerous changes over the years, consisting of business acquisitions, changes of CEO's, revamping stores and major advertising campaigns. In fact, most of us are aware that Jamie Oliver has been the public face of the company for over a decade now. This earns Jamie an estimated £1.2 million every year. Is it worth it to the company? Yes for sure, for the first two years these ads were estimated to have furnished Sainsbury's £1 billion more of sales or "£200 million gross profit."!

As a company with fairly good ethics, Sainsbury's is also a sponsor of the Paralympics Summer Games in 2012 and supports Fair-trade.

Regarding their own label Basics, a large store will generally stock approximately 30,000 lines. These own-brand lines include the Basics: "an economy range of around 700 lines, mainly food but also including other areas such as toiletries and stationery. The Basics range uses minimal packaging with simple orange and white designs, to keep the price as low as possible. Equivalent to Tesco's Value, Asda's Smart price and Morrison's Value." Which brings me to this particular Basics range product I'm reviewing....

~*~ "Cast Iron" ~ Reason for Purchase ~*~

Over the years, I've alternated between some fairly expensive name brand irons and cheep and cheerful ones! When an iron finally keels over and refuses to press another item, if I'm short of cash then I will go for one up from actually sitting on the laundry to press it!

~*~ "Any old iron?" ~ The Negatives ~*~

My latest iron is of the latter! The Sainsbury's Basics Steam Iron is a very simple to use fairly low 1200W iron. It can only store 160ml in the water tank, which equals 5.41 fl. oz.capacity. In practical terms, this means for around ten to fifteen minutes of high percentage linen ironing, I will need to top up. This gets very repetitively annoying.

The Jet of steam's output of 15g per minute is unimpressive; due to the squirting and spluttering of the tank as it takes on more water; it really can't hold its drink! Additionally, with no removable water tank, filling the iron with fluid becomes a task fit for a bomb disposal expert if one wants to avoid covering the electrical flex with water! The variable steam output really isn't a valid option for me because I leave the steam feature on permantly. The iron simply cannot iron anything well without this setting being left full on.

The iron incorporates a non-stick stainless steel soleplate that has been treated so that it is supposed to glide over clothes easily. It doesn't! When I first used the iron, I learned this the hard way. I set the iron on nylon to press an under skirt, and it grated over the garment, lifting it in its wake. This resulted in a spoiled garment and a thick singed black residue of fabric being stuck fast to the plate. I have since used an array of brand iron plate cleaners to no avail.

The cable's length is only 1.8m. Now this may seem sufficient, but I have found it at least a couple of feet too short to stretch the length from the socket to the ironing board, and along the board's length with comfort!The iron has no anti scale system so build up is a problem if I don't use a decent brand of iron water. I can't use normal tap water if I want to avoid the scale build up, this incurs expense and inconvenience.

There is no anti-drip valve or leak protection either which means the garments I'm ironing often get soaked if I don't treat the iron like it has a hormone imbalance! I have to glide the iron over clothing at a slow and ridiculously gentle pace to avoid it getting sick over the linen! Neither is there an auto off function, so staying with the iron, for example, to attend to a visitor at the door isn't an option. All my children are adults now. I only iron when the grand-tots aren't visiting, therefore leaving the iron wouldn't be a safety issue! But, as there is no shut off function, if I know I'm going to be longer than 5/10 minutes, I have to turn off the iron. It cools pretty quickly, so coming back to the task means waiting for the iron to reach the chosen heat, while displaying it's irratability by spurting water over the board!

The iron's short 39.5cm length isn't practical because this means the actual ironing plate is so small that ironing table cloths and quilt covers is a long and arduous chore. Although there is no comfy grip handle included in this model, the light weight of the utensil means that this isn't really a problem.

Although the iron has six settings for ironing various fabrics, I strongly advice only using the Nylon for all delicates and Linen for tough textiles. The delicates really don't come out well, but if its set higher, the garment will be ruined due to the flawed heat features! This is why I leave the steam setting on for any/all garments to increase the pressing capability. Since I purchased this iron over a year ago, the steam nozzle and tank cover has fallen off. This means that if I go any faster than a snail's pace to iron, not that I know if snails press their shells, but I get covered in water along with the item I'm trying to press!

Ironing delicates can furnish satisfactory results but only with very careful monitoring of iron and set on nylon with the steam on.

~*~ 'Pumping Iron' ~ The Positives ~*~

The total weight of the iron is only 1.3kg. For me, this is perfect as I've developed Osteoarthritis in which makes repetitive lifting of heavy objects very painful. I can iron for as long as I wish (sitting down) without any undue stress on my wrist.

The laundry dial has a setting for acrylics, nylons, silks, woolens, cottons and linens. The cotton to linen setting with the steam on full affords a good press for tough textiles but careful monitoring has to be a constant!

The product comes with a Manufacturer's guarantee of one year, which you will probably find useful! The iron is a pleasant white with sky blue buttons and tank feature. Apart from the dreadful sole plate, the iron is easy to clean with a moistened cloth. I have to give the iron 5/5 for durability because I have dropped it no less than three times and it carried on working!

I think I originally purchased this item for around £5. It can still be purchased through sites such as http://www.binbin.net for £3.87. Sainsbury's have up-dated the version to a white and purple finish with only a few differences, one being an increase in wattage of 2000. This higher powered model's Item code is109101999 and cost £9.94, with 18 Nectar points and can be found at: http://www.sainsburys.co.uk

~*~ "Iron Curtain" ~ Would I Recommend? ~*~

No, save for a more efficient model!

Yes if you're stone broke and don't see yourself being able to afford better in the near future, hence why I still use mine! I'm a grand-parent; rather spend any extras on the grand-tots!

(PN Had to give a rate on 'battery life though N/A else unable to submit post!)